Catecholamines & Exercise

written by runnergirl training

What are catecholamines and how do they relate to exercise? Catecholamines are
adrenal gland hormones and are dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine. The
adrenal glands are located on top of the kidneys and they release catecholamines
when an individual is stressed physically or emotionally (MedlinePlus, 2013).

Physiologically
epinephrine increases the heart rate and constricts the blood vessels
throughout the body (Klabunde, 2013). These actions are required by the body
when performing exercise and are what helps get the body in motion.

What,
if any, responses to exercise to catecholamines play? For endurance trained individuals
there is an increased adrenaline response compared to untrained individuals for
high intensity aerobic exercise. This is due to an occurrence termed the sports
adrenal medulla (Zouhal, Jacob, Delamarche and Gratas-Delamarche, 2008).
Conversely, Kjaer (1998) reported that at a same workload the endurance trained
had a lower adrenal response than the untrained participants. However, when
presented with non-exercise stimuli the adrenaline response for the endurance
trained was higher than the untrained participants. This result is an
adaptation of the glands from long term physical conditioning also known as the
sports adrenal medulla.

Even
though there is a debate in the literature regarding the impact of catecholamines
on trained verses untrained individuals it is a topic worth continuing to
investigate. They are necessary in the response to exercise and psychological
stress for the fight or flight mechanism. In conclusion it would be beneficial
to definitively show the adaptation of this system due to the response to
physical training.